The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Use of wireless devices while driving is a major cause of accidents in the United States. Wireless devices can comprise a broad category of devices such as cellular phones, smart phones, laptop personal computers (PCs), tablet PCs, portable game systems, electronic book readers, etc. Employers, parents, vehicle rental companies, and other vehicle owners can loan a vehicle to a third party driver who will likely own a wireless device. Such devices can be used by owners who are also drivers and are therefore responsible for their own actions. Frequently, however, a vehicle owner has limited (if any) control over the actions of a driver that is merely using the vehicle, but can be partially or completely responsible for the results of any automobile accidents that are caused by the driver. Such vehicle owners may be unaware of a driver's usage of a wireless device in their vehicle under such circumstances and has few options for curtailing such activity.
Detection systems can be installed in the vehicle, however current detection systems have difficulty in distinguishing between driver wireless device usage and permitted wireless device usage by passengers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,474,264 (to Bolduc et al) describes a detection system that utilizes a number of receiving antennas located at various positions within the vehicle, and uses differences in signal strength measured at these antennas to attempt to ascertain the location of a transmitting wireless device within the vehicle. All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply. The practicality of isolating an RF signal within what is essentially a highly RF reflective enclosure is highly problematic, however, and such a system is highly susceptible to interference from both external RF sources and from RF reflective material (for example, metallic foil or mylar packaging) located within the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 8,249,665 (to Rathus and Olivo) describes a system that includes a controller that can communicate with and shut down a wireless device should it detect wireless device usage in an unauthorized area or situation. The described system, however, similarly utilizes simple signal strength characterization in order to determine the position of the transmitting wireless device and is subject to the same limitations. U.S. Pat. No. 8,787,936 (to Tibbitts and Nabkel) describes a system that identifies the position (and in some embodiments, the simple presence) of a transmitting wireless device using one or more RF detectors and utilizes a centralized processing system to disable functions of devices being used in an unauthorized manner. Such a system, however, can be readily circumvented by using a wireless device that does not include the software necessary to support disabling functionality.
In addition to these shortcomings the systems noted above can be susceptible to sources of RF interference. Examples of such interference include RF transmissions from wireless devices near the vehicle (e.g. pedestrians or adjacent vehicles), transmission from other RF sources within the vehicle, and “spillover” from nearby sources of strong RF transmissions. United States Patent Application Publication NO. 2004/0203393 (to Chen) describes a method for distinguishing RF signals occurring within the same spectrum by subdividing a broad frequency range into a number of adjacent narrow frequency bands. The set of adjacent narrow frequency bands is subdivided into two sets of interdigitated narrow frequency bands. The frequency peaks of the individual bands are set at half of the frequency range of the narrow band, permitting differentiation of the members of the two sets by rolloff filtering. Such a method, however, is not readily applicable to removal of interference, which is unlikely to occur at an optimal frequency. U.S. Pat. No. 8,718,024 (to Jagger et al) describes a method for suppressing interference within a wide frequency band by detecting a number of narrow frequency band signals within the wide frequency band, using the signal strength at each of the narrow frequency bands to determine a composite wide band power level, and determining a threshold value based on the composite power level. This threshold value is then utilized to filter and suppress the signal received from specific narrow band receivers.
Thus, there is still a need for systems and methods that reliably identify unauthorized or non-permitted use of a wireless device in a vehicle.